STAGE 4: Franchisee Recruitment
Objective: Now it is time to officially recruit franchisees and validate your final support package. You will continue to use the principles of lean experimentation in this stage, adjusting the package if needed during the validation process. Once you have solidified the final package, you will sign contracts with the franchisees and be ready to launch your franchise in Stage 5.
Suggested time-frame: Stage 4 should be completed 1 to 2 months, depending on how many franchisees you are recruiting.
Recommended Roles and Responsibilities:
- Executive Director: Sign off on final contractual agreements.
- Program staff / Franchise Project Manager: Lead on recruiting and onboarding franchisees for the initial pilot of the franchise model. Lead on the same processes for subsequent rounds of franchisee recruitment.
- Marketing and Communications Staff: Work with Franchise Project Manager on advertising the opportunity and promotion efforts for the franchise network during recruitment.
Please follow these three Steps to complete Stage 4:
Formally advertise the franchise network opportunity to the short list of providers that you have in your franchisee contact database, which was finalized in Stage 3. Advertisement can be done through email, mail, or in-person outreach, using the branded materials that you also created in Stage 3, or through a phone call to initially introduce the general details of the franchise network. Regardless of the channel you use for advertisement, Step 2 in this Stage recommends an in-person meeting to solidify the partnership.
Refer to the selection criteria you had outlined in the social franchise strategic planning guide in Stage 2, which should also be reflected in the franchisor manual, to evaluate your final short list of franchisees and ensure they meet you initial criteria. If you are developing a new franchise network, it is suggested that you pilot with one or two franchisees to test your model before expanding. Schedule meetings with all prospective franchisees that meet the criteria, and use any branded materials developed in Stage 3 to solidify the franchise partnership and validate all aspects of the final franchise support package, including trainings and potential training schedule and venue, commercial aspects of contraceptive products, and franchise fees. You should also use this meeting to validate any requirements, such as licenses and ability to meet quality standards. Take note of any comments made about the support package in order to consider adjustments to the offering. After you have completed all of these in-person meetings, you should regroup with your team to finalize the support package based on any feedback, as the next step is contract signing.
Update and sign the contractual agreement, created in Stage 3, with all franchisees that will be part of the network and collect any initial franchise fees, if applicable. The franchisee operations manual, also from Stage 3, is a key resource for this step, as the manual will explicitly outline the standards that are required of the franchisee. Congratulations! You officially have a social franchising network. Get ready for franchisee capacity building in Stage 5.
